CrossFit trainer E.C. Synkowski offers practical nutrition information to help with day-to-day choices. In Part 2, she talks to a group at CrossFit Hingham about protein and fat.

Protein is pretty easy to understand for most folks, but fat can be tricky. There are three types of fat: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Saturated fat is the most stable and the best for your body. The problem is that when you eat a food that has fat in it, it’s in a combination of all three.

“Instead of making yourself mad trying to know exactly which meat has which kind of fatty-acid balance, my sort of practical recommendation is just rotate your meat sources,” Synkowski says. “Have beef, have chicken, have seafood, have eggs, and that’s going to give you a nice balance across the three different types.”

15 Comments on “Simple Nutrition: Part 2”

Smart Balance put out a new oil. It has somewhere around 1100mg of Omega3 per tablespoon and If I remember correctly they list the Omega6 vs Omega3 as a 4:1 ratio. Can anyone tell me if I take this oil (ie 2-3 tablespoons per meal) will this have the same benefit as taking just straight Omega3 1000mg tablets? The oil is only around $3.50 vs $20-60 for the tablets.

Also important to note that only EPA and DHA can be used by the body. ALA, which is found in grain-based sources, can be converted to EPA/DHA, but it is poorly converted (~10-30% depending on literature source).

From the digging around I have done, it appears that only meat-based sources have EPA/DHA. The grain-based sources (e.g., flax) have predominantly or exclusively ALA. Furthermore, when omega-3's are supplementally added to food products, they may or may not be adding EPA/DHA. Putting on my skeptic's hat, I would say they are usually adding ALA, as it is cheaper and easier.

Another interesting example. Farm-raised vs. Fresh-caught salmon. Both high in omega-3's, but farm-raised is predominantly ALA (small wonder, they are farmed and fed grain), and fresh-caught is predominantly EPA/DHA. And interestingly, while 80% of Atlantic salmon is farm-raised, 90% of Pacific salmon is fresh-caught. So go with that nice deep red salmon!

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